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The federal government has dismissed Beijing's threats of retaliation after its decision to impose mandatory testing on travellers flying into Australia amid a surge of COVID cases in China.
From Thursday, travellers from China will be forced to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test and record a negative result before making the journey to Australia – a move that has sparked anger from China's authorities.
It follows a number of other countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and India, also imposing new testing regimes on travellers from China.
The new rule comes despite Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly advising the government not to introduce it, saying there was not "sufficient public health rationale" to impose mandatory testing.
Professor Kelly said without any "specific threat" from a COVID variant, and as China had high vaccination rates, it was unnecessary to place additional restrictions or requirements on incoming travellers.
So, what could China do in retaliation and what has Australia said about the threats?
Beijing threatens retaliation
Mao Ning, a spokesperson with China's foreign ministry, said the moves to impose mandatory testing for travellers from China were not "science-based".
"Some of these measures are disproportionate and simply unacceptable," she said in a press conference on Tuesday evening local time.
"We firmly reject using COVID measures for political purposes and will take corresponding measures in response to varying situations based on the principle of reciprocity."
So, what could China impose on foreign nations in response?
China already requires a negative PCR test prior to departure for incoming travellers, but is set to scrap quarantine for those entering the country from January 8.
Up until then, inbound travellers must go through five days of quarantine at a government facility before isolating at home for a further three days.
The move to roll back quarantine will coincide with the start of the spring festival travel season, and comes just before Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated on January 22
Reversing it would further disrupt the travel plans of potentially millions of China's diaspora looking to visit loved ones during the festive periods.
What has been Australia's response?
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he was not worried about China's threats to retaliate against countries imposing COVID-19 tests on travellers coming from China.
"Again, different countries will make decisions about how they go about this," he told the ABC.
"Now, there is a big wave of COVID in China at the moment, every country is still managing in one way or another this pandemic, and so they will take a decision based on their own considerations just as we have on our own considerations and a lot of countries around the world are imposing these kinds of tests.
"And so again, our job in government is to make a decision which balances all the various factors and considerations.
"That's what we've done here – it's consistent with what a lot of countries are doing and it's erring on the side of caution."
Dr Chalmers said any steps China takes in response would be "a matter for them".
"I'm not going to pre-empt or guess what they might do," he said.
"I think there has been a welcome level of dialogue between our country and China."
Is the new rule a coordinated move to pressure China?
There have been suggestions the fact multiple countries moved to enforce COVID testing on outbound travellers from China at the same time meant that it was a coordinated plan to pressure Beijing into releasing more data about the state of COVID in the country.
Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) met with Chinese scientists on Tuesday, after urging officials to share more specific and current information on the latest outbreak.
Dr Chalmers did not directly deny the move was coordinated when questioned directly about it, and said Australia shared the worries of the WHO.
"Look, I don't see it precisely like that, but there certainly is a lot of concern around the global health community and the global economy about the transparency and quality of data that we see out of China on COVID," he said.
"I think that's very clear if you look at what the WHO has been saying about the sorts of steps that countries have been taking to manage travellers out of that part of the world, they said that these kind of steps are understandable and that's because they have a concern.
"We share that concern about the quality and transparency of that data.
"We do need to make sure that we have the best possible surveillance of strains as they emerge but also waves as they emerge and become more difficult to manage."
What has the opposition said?
Senator Anne Ruston, the opposition's health spokesperson, said the government need to explain why it has gone against the advice from the chief health officer.
"I would have always thought that the advice we receive from our medical officials was, by its very nature, cautious, because of course it's then some very serious consequences of getting that advice wrong," she told the ABC.
"So, I'm not quite sure about what the government's saying – are they saying that the advice they are receiving from the chief medical officer and the health officials is not cautious? Are they saying that it is reckless in some way?
"So, I think there's some further explanations as to why an abundance of caution would suggest that they're thinking that the advice they're getting isn't cautious.
She also said the testing of incoming travellers will not provide any additional data on what is going on in China.
"None of the testing will be genomically sequenced, whether it will be rapid antigen tests or the PCR tests that are being current required by the government tomorrow, none of them are going to be genomically sequenced, there will be no data collected by this measure.
"So, even if that was the concern, and it appears to be a concern, this is not going to solve that."
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